By Far: Our Weakest Position

Of all our starters, this position was our worst last year. I like this writeup from www.jsonline.com:

Kicker Mason Crosby was the worst field-goal kicker in the league last season. Crosby made 63.6% of his attempts, while the next worst was San Francisco's David Akers at 69.0%.

The 49ers saw enough of Akers and signed Phil Dawson, who made 93.5% of his kicks in Cleveland last season. The Packers stayed pat with Crosby and signed street free agent Giorgio Tavecchio, who's never attempted an NFL kick in the regular season.

Green Bay is rolling the dice that Crosby - a 79.4% kicker from 2007-'11 - can regain his pastmediocrity.

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Crosby didn't kill us last year in the end in San Francisco. But should we keep hoping against hope he'll regain the form he had 5, 6, 7 years ago?
I can't stand this guy, and remember like 3 times last year on game-live-chat boards here, we all thought he would be gone the next day. He was atrocious, and he's never been very clutch, like a Vinitieri or Longwell.

I can't argue with any of this. I don't know why they are so stubborn with him. its not even like he was ever a perennial Pro Bowler. Even at his best he was just another kicker. For as much as I like TT I have no idea why they are so insistent on sticking with a bad and overpaid player at an easily replaceable position.

Everyone knows he slumped last year. But hey, before that he was in the top 30 of all-time fg% coupled with his leg big enough to knock in a 58 yarder (franchise record) with about 7 yards to spare. Also franchise record in points scored in a year. And you want to give all this up for a slump??

Kickers go through slumps, it's a fact of life. Would you of rather us signed Olindo Mare who made 2.1 million in his few short weeks last year? Since 2 million is apparently to much for a career high in pay for a full season of Mason.

If he comes back this summer and outplays the foreign guy are you still against him being our kicker? He already appeared to be coming out of the slump at the end of last year. I made a dollar bet with a buddy on each field goal be attempted at the end of last year and actually made some money.

Ah. And the best point in your post. The fact that Crosby was not the reason our season ended last year. Or even a factor. Bingo.

I get it Rodell, the man, the myth, the legend. And you Frank too I suppose. Nothing McCarthy and Thompson will ever do will please you. Not even a 74-38 record, 6-4 in the playoffs, a super bowl win, and MVP quarterback. Are you even a Packers fan?

Of all our starters, this position was our worst last year. I like this writeup from www.jsonline.com:

Crosby didn't kill us last year in the end in San Francisco. But should we keep hoping against hope he'll regain the form he had 5, 6, 7 years ago?
I can't stand this guy, and remember like 3 times last year on game-live-chat boards here, we all thought he would be gone the next day. He was atrocious, and he's never been very clutch, like a Vinitieri or Longwell.

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Why do you say 5, 6, 7 years ago? Did he not come into this last year with something like 34 made field goals in a row?

And you Frank too I suppose. Nothing McCarthy and Thompson will ever do will please you. Not even a 74-38 record, 6-4 in the playoffs, a super bowl win, and MVP quarterback. Are you even a Packers fan?

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Woh, easy there....
I love McCarthy, and I love Teddy's drafting.

But Crosby has been a perennial choker.
And last year he flat out turned into dog poop even in non-clutch situations.

He was THE WORST kicker in the NFL.
And he got paid among the highest.
Does that add up to you?

My point is just that I think people have an outdated bar of success when it comes to placekickers. Kickers, believe it or not, are better than they have ever been.

80% isn't a standard of elite anymore, it's the minimum bar. Undrafted and/or late round drafted kickers last year like Justin Tucker and Blair Walsh turned in seasons that exceeded 90% for accuracy.

To give you some perspective, Dan Bailey, Alex Hendry, Nate Kaeding, Rob Bironas, Robbie Gould, Shayne Graham, Garrett Hartley, Stephen Gostowski, Phil Dawson, and Connor Barth are all in the top 12 in FG percentage of ALL TIME! Vanderjagt is the only one out of the top 12 that isn't active, or active as of last year. If you're not a top kicker, you're very replaceable. Crosby is 55th all time, which puts him as 4th worst among active kickers.

Big names from the past like Tom Dempsey, George Blanda, etc, booted FG's anywhere between 50% and 70%. The top 100 kickers in FG percentage all time contains not ONE name that played before the 70's. Only 2 names in the top 40 played before the 90's. It's a very different era now, and high accuracy is an expectation. Kickers like Crosby, quite frankly, are a dime a dozen now. There's no point in paying them top dollar.

I posted detailed looks at Crosby's stats in previous threads, so I won't go into the details. However, it's still worth pointing out the Crosby's stats were much worse because he was terrible over 50 yards. He had a couple ugly balls under 50 that he should have made, but his FG% wasn't much below his normal. It's the fact that MM kept trotting Crosby out - during a slump - to attempt way more 50+ kicks than ever before.

There is no question that Crosby has to make those kicks, whatever the situation, but equal blame belongs to Rodgers and McCarthy for creating so many of those situations for a struggling kicker. I won't defend Crosby's slump or say that we should stick with him. However, we need a better option before we kick the guy off the team.

I just saw the 2007 Championship game where he outkicked Lawrence Tines in the cold. He also nailed everything in last year's playoffs. He's serviceable when needed but we could do better. I'm not in favor of cutting him until we find a better option.

I remember last year vs Detroit him missing and MM looking like he wanted to strangle the life out of him. MM opted to go for it when we were in scoring range the remainder of the game. Speaks volumes on why he is still here after all that.

Most of the guys in the top 100 to 200 range weren't even full time kickers -- they were running backs, QB's, etc. Prior to the 70's teams just usually had the guy on the team who could kick do the kicking. It wasn't a specialized position like it is now.

Yeah, I've never been a big Mason Crosby guy (Those missed kicks from 08 - early 2010 cost us some very close games, gave ammo to people like Skip Bayless to call ARod "Un-Clutch") ... The dude has a strong leg, I'm not sure of the science about kicking at Lambeau Field 8+ times a year plus a trip to Soldier Field, but the dude missed some really-really easy kicks last year... in domes, road - home - didn't matter.

Maybe he bounces back from the slump, but if the goofy italian guy is better, then whatever - I just hope a friggin' kicker doesn't cost us a game this next year.

We wouldn't need a kicker with a dominant offensive line--which we may finally get this year with the shuffling and new running game. But I agree that Crosby has been average during his career, and we should do better than average.